Cruisin'
April 7, 2004

Well, I did it.

It wasn't a very long struggle, and I certainly could have walked away, but I'm glad I didn't.

I bought a new car. Sure, I've bought many cars over the years, beginning with a 1958 Volvo I purchased for $500.00. That was in June 1966, the same month I graduated from high school. I painted that car black with a gold racing stripe down the drivers side, and zebra interior! Cruisin' Sunset Boulevard was definitely cool!

My dad had a succession of cars that instilled in me a love for the classic lines of the cars of yesteryear. Here are some of the cars that I remember him having: 1937 Cord (front-wheel drive), 1941 Lincoln Continental (encased spare tire on the rear bumper), 1948 Studebaker (Bullet-nose), 1954 Studebaker Hawk, and a 1965 Mustang.

So, when Detroit began making the "retro" cars a number of years ago, my interest was peaked. Chrysler created the Prowler, which has a classic look along the lines of the 1911 Stutz Bearcat. Chevrolet has a pickup truck, the SSR, that looks like the late-40s, early-50s mode Chevy pickup. Ford came out with a car fashioned after the 1955 T-Bird with the porthole window.

Chrysler came out with the PT Cruiser, a car that looks like a cross between an old Power Wagon and a bread truck vintage 1930s. I immediately liked it. Isaura commented that it looked like something gangsters would drive. She called it a "Mafia Car."

Well, that's okay because I wasn't really in the market for a new car anyway. At least not until my 1990 Toyota Camry stranded me in Los Angeles on my way home to Ripon a few weeks ago. I love the Camry, but it is nearly fifteen years old, and I've recently passed two hundred thousand miles on the odometer. When I travel home over a weekend, I drive 415 miles each way, much of it on freeways out in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley of Central California. Trust me on this: you do not want to have your car break down out there. While I was home that weekend, friends from church, Roger & Carla Alberts, stopped by to show us their new PT Cruiser. I asked Roger if I could drive it. I liked the feel -- lots of head and legroom, and very spacious both front and back.

When I came back to Camp Pendleton I saw an ad for the PT Cruiser with a special discount for military personnel, I thought I might as well check it out. I grabbed RP1 Bob Page and we drove down to National City in San Diego to visit the Chrysler dealership that was offering the military deal. They had many PT Cruisers to choose from, so I was like a kid in a candy shop.

The salesman who took care of me was a former Marine, so we connected right away. He took us a ways from the downtown area so I could test drive the car more than simply driving around the block. It was a nice candy apple red. Later that night when I called Isaura to tell her about the great deal on these Cruisers, she said, "Sounds real good. Just don't get a red one!"

Well, I've learned a few things over the years, one of which is to listen carefully to my wife's instructions. A red PT Cruiser was off the table. But Bob had already had me looking a the cream-colored version, something Chrysler calls, "Cool Vanilla." So when I told him Isaura said no red cars, he laughed and said, "I told you that cream-colored car is the one."

Bob and I drove back down the next night and I bought the Cool Vanilla PT Cruiser. It's a five-speed transmission, stick-shift on the floor, with charcoal-colored fabric interior.

Now, you have to understand that this is the first new car I ever bought for myself. I bought a new Dodge Caravan for Isaura in 1987, but that's the only other new car I ever purchased.

Next weekend, Bob and I are driving to our homes in northern California (we live sixty miles apart). We're taking the PT Cruiser. Bob's looking forward to it as much as I am. You see, Bob is 6'6" and needs lots of room. He'll have that, and then some.

We'll see if Isaura still thinks it's a Mafia car!

One thing is certain: This time when I drive through L.A., I'll be cruisin'!